thdrew the Scots Cavalry to the
neighborhood of London, and wore out his heart in the effort to put
manhood into his party, which was now occupied in looking after their
own interests in the inevitable revolution. And again Claverhouse, or,
as we should call him, Dundee, wrote to Jean:

DEAREST AND BRAVEST OF WOMEN: Were ye not that, as I know well, I
had no heart in me to write this letter, for I have no good thing
to tell thee about the cause of the King and it seems to me
certain that, for the time at least, England is lost. I am now in
London, and the days are far harder for me than when I campaigned
with the Usurper, and fought joyfully at Seneffe and Grave. It is
ill to contain oneself when a man has to go from one to another of
his comrades and ask him for God's sake and the King's sake to
play the man. Then to get nothing but fair and false words, and to
see the very officers that hold the King's commission shuffling
and lying, with one eye on King James and the other on the Prince
of Orange. Had I my way of it I would shoot a dozen of the
traitors to encourage the others. But the King is all for
peace--peace, forsooth! when his enemies are at the door of the
palace. What can one man do against so many, and a King too
tolerant and good-natured--God forgive me, I had almost written
too weak? It is not for me to sit in judgment on my Sovereign, but
some days ago I gave my mind to Hamilton in his own lodgings,
where Balcarres and certain of us met to take council. There were
hot words, and no good came of it. Balcarres alone is staunch, and
yesterday he went with me to Whitehall and we had our last word
for the present with the King. He was gracious unto us, as he has
ever been to me when his mind was not poisoned by Queensberry or
Perth, and ye might care to know, Jean, what your man, much
daring, said to His Majesty: "We have come, Sir, to ask a favor of
your Majesty, and that ye will let us do a deed which will waken
the land and turn the tide of affairs. Have we your permission to
cause the drums to be beat of every regiment in London and the
neighbourhood, for if ye so consent there will be twenty thousand
men ready to start to-morrow morning. Before to-morrow night the
road to London will be barred, and, please God, before a week is
over your throne will be placed beyond danger." For a space I
think he was moved and then the life went out of h